Today we continue in Isaiah, with another remarkable 500 years out “looking ahead” of the coming Messiah in Isaiah:
Isaiah 49:5-7 (ESV)
And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him— for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength— he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
Christ went in person preaching the gospel of the kingdom, labored and spent his strength, and yet the rulers and the body of the nation rejected him and his doctrine; so very few were brought in, when one would think none should have stood out, that he might well say, “I have labored in vain, preached so many sermons, wrought so many miracles, in vain.” Let not the ministers think it strange that they are slighted when the Master himself was. He comforts himself under this discouragement with this consideration, that it was the cause of God in which he was engaged and the call of God that engaged him in it: Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, who is the Judge of all, and my work with my God, whose servant I am. His comfort is, and it may be the comfort of all faithful ministers, when they see little success of their labors.
—Matthew Henry’s Commentary
I am not only encouraged to keep going, with God’s work, because of the example of Isaiah and Jesus Christ himself, despite the short returns here on earth sometimes, but I have also modeled my work after this. Jesus redeemed the entire earth by redeeming Israel, and I have focused my work on 1 block, or 1 neighborhood throughout my ministry in hopes that by redeeming 1 block, the model and reputation of that work might inspire the whole world. URM is focusing on Skid Row right now.
Have you picked out your block?
Rev. Andy Bales
President/CEO of Union Rescue Mission